July 18, 2010
Kudos to Brazil’s President, an inspiring individual and one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People for 2010, for referring a bill to the Brazilian Congress banning corporal punishment of children by parents.
The bill prohibits “cruel or degrading treatment that humiliates or seriously threatens children, including spanking”. (See BBCNews, Brazil president seeks legal ban on smacking, July 15, 2010.)
President Da Silva, popularly known as Lula, explained to critics that spanking is not necessary to discipline children and that it is more effective to talk to children and discipline them verbally. He refers to himself as someone with personal understanding of these issues, having been brought up my a poor mother with eight children who never struck any of her children. He feels fortunate and followed his mother’s example with his own children.
“If punishment and whipping solved things, we wouldn’t have so much corruption or banditry in this country,” he said.
If this bill is passed in Congress, Brazil would follow twenty other countries which have explicitly banned corporal punishment by parents.
See article at BBC News, Brazil president seeks legal ban on smacking, July 15, 2010.